I am genuinely shocked at the number of people who think things that don't need explaining should be explained. Reminds me of my twelve year old sister who couldn't stop asking me about the logic behind some of the story bits in Viva Pinata. There I was, having fun with the game, and she would not stop asking why people were wearing masks. It doesn't matter! It looks nice, adding to the visual appeal of the game! That's all there is.
This obsession of continuity and explanations for incredibly advanced science... it's bad. It's unhealthy. It ruins enjoyment without serving any real purpose.
Drama is important. Logic less so. :\
People finding "plot holes" that are based on a fictional story not lining up flawlessly with the rules of reality are only ruining things for themselves, and fail to understand storytelling on a fundamental level.
It's Space Magic (and for some reason, people complained about this stuff only in Mass Effect) but yeah, it's the envy of all Reapers as I'd like to call it. But, I always give this stuff a pass as being ultra high tech we-can't-even-begin-to-understand kind of stuff. I'm still wondering about that artifact from Episode 2 of Spartan Ops and wanna know more about that now.
I agree with your POV, but the difference between ME and Halo:
Mass Effect featured a PTSD kid ghost who decided to allow Shepard to make a decision for some weird reason, which created multi-colored lasers that fixed everything. In other words, it's a deus ex machina with no internal story logic that breaks down the dramatic tension of the game.
In Halo, the intended function is clearly explained: The Composer harvests consciousnesses in order to preserve them, allowing them to be recreated in the future. It is also explained that the device does not work as intended. It's a failed experiment.
Not only does the device make sense (The science behind the Halos was never explained; all that matters is that they're advanced alien tech and that they work--trying to explain the science would end up turning the story into The Core), but it adds dramatic tension and is logically consistent with the story.
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Alright, all that said, I'm now going to complain about a story bit that doesn't make any sense to me that could absolutely be seen as someone complaining about things that don't need complaining about, so I may appear hypocritical here. Sorry 'bout that.
So, female spartans.
They're pretty tough, right? Previous media has generally shown them to be nearly as bulky as their counterparts (see: The Package, Babysitter, the cover of The Fall of Reach, a bit in First Strike, etc). All Spartans are fairly bulky, and even without they're armor, they're definitely superhuman.
Then we get the Spartans in Halo Reach and Halo 4. The guys are still big and bulky, though, admittedly, the Spartan IVs are more lithe than the Chief, and on the whole, shorter. The women, though? They basically seem like upscaled normal human women.
Palmer doesn't look lethal, she looks like a model in armor. Even olympic gymnasts look more bulky than Halo's female super soldiers.
I get that this isn't as egregious as the average armor for women in an MMO, but it sticks out as odd to me. I was kind of expecting that, stance aside (due to the way the musculoskeletal system is different between men and women), people wouldn't really be able to tell the difference between males and females in Halo
Not really the case, sadly. :\
Apparently so. Sadly so.
Doesn't the Infinity's gun blast a hole moments later? Anyway, they can wave their SciFi Magic wan and explain it. "The Infinity was closer than the others!"
...you mean... moments later, when Chief shut down the shielding so that the Infinity could approach and fire the MAC round? The (capitalized for emphasis) OBJECTIVE OF THE MISSION? What did you think you were doing the trench run for? The entire
point was that you needed to allow the infinity's MAC round to have an effect.
It didn't need to be handwaved, it was explained
in the game, and you're having trouble with it because you
didn't pay attention.
This reminds me of all those Call of Duty discussions back when Modern Warfare 2 came out, where people were pointing out all sorts of "plot holes" that were explained in the game itself. I remember one particular discussion where someone was whining about how the nuke launch sequence didn't make sense because the nuke only created an EMP and it should have blown up DC. Nukes cause EMPs. Price detonated a nuke to scare people but ensured it would do nothing more than cause a power outage. This is all explained within the game.
Do people just completely ignore things that are said during gameplay? Do they only pay attention during Bioware-styled cut scenes? This would actually explain why people think Bioware has good stories--players can go through dialog at their own pace and get it repeated if they miss it. In games like Halo and Call of Duty, it's expected that players are paying attention and won't miss any story details.
I'm depressed.